Rules and Etiquette
The admin team aims for the Wikia to be a fun and enjoyable place for everyone and, over 5 years, we've constructed these rules in order to promote that. We believe that when joining an internet community it is polite, if not necessary, to understand their rules and expectations prior to getting involved. We appreciate you taking the time to read ours. In this article, "rules" dictate what sort of things are allowed on the our site and "etiquette" are tips for how to behave. Both work together to keep the Wikia running smoothly. A lot of both are common sense, but we encourage all users to by knowledgeable about what is and isn't appropriate for the site, regardless. The punishment for continued disregard of the rules is a ban. Please note: Everyone messes up. Every user on this site has had to be talked to by an admin at one point or another. If an admin approaches you it is never an attack on you personally. We just want to be able to help you fit in and gel with the community better, all while keeping the rest of our community safe and happy. If you are looking for rules specifically about what is and isn't allowed for original characters, check here! They are considered as necessary as this page. General These rules apply in all areas of the Wikia. *Keep things PG-13! **Ever After High is a franchise designed for a younger audience, so we have to keep that in mind. *No excessive use of rude language. Please limit swearing. *Violence and gore should come with a warning. If the violence and gore is serious or explicit, please link to an external host and provide warnings. *No sexual content. **The general rule of thumb for posting any content: “would this be allowed in a typical Marvel (superhero) movie?” *Your age and/or age range should be stated. **Ages should be stated on driver pages, or if you have not made a driver's page, your user page. **If you are uncomfortable with stating your age, 13+ or 18+ is fine. **We’re aware this may seem like a odd rule but it is the US law (COPPA) that all users of this site be over the age of 13. This is for the users' own safety. It is also worth noting that if we need to contact higher up in the Wikia Community for help we are at risk of our Wikia being closed down if we have users younger than 13. *Discrimination of any kind is not allowed. **This includes (but is not limited to) gender, race, sexuality, and religion. **No content with racist/sexist/homophobic undertones should be posted. Courtesy Courtesy means being nice, polite, and following the golden rule of “treating others how you would like to be treated”. Here are some behaviours we promote in order to keep the Wikia as friendly as possible: *Be kind! **Thank people for help and offer help to anyone who might need it. **Being purposefully mean or rude to others is never okay. **Be mindful of how your words may come across. **Remember, there's a person at the other end of the screen. If you wouldn't say what you type to them in real life then we would suggest not typing it. *Don’t demand art, fan fiction, votes, comments, compliments, interactions, roleplays, etc. from another user. **It is more than okay to ask for art, fan fiction, interactions, roleplays, etc. but you should be careful that your requests don't come across as demands. **Demanding could mean consistently asking another person, ignoring them if they so no, wording your request in such a way that puts pressure on the other person, etc. **The person you are asking art, fan fiction, interactions, roleplays etc. from is human too. It is stressful and off-putting to be on the receiving end of these demands. **You would never go into a restaurant and go up to the chef and continuously demand food. Remember that writing and art can take a long time and you are never owed it. **While ghosting someone is rude and we don't encourage it, if you have been met with silence then the answer is probably a no. *Be friendly and welcoming! **If you see someone new on the Wikia saying a simple “Hi!” means a lot. **Posting positive comments on people’s pages is another friendly thing to do. It tells other people that you have enjoyed what they have written. Chatroom *Keep the chatroom PG-13. **Discussion of topics that exceed PG-13 should be done privately or outside of the Wikia. *Welcome new users who enter chat! *Don’t talk over people. Make people feel welcome and included in the chatroom. *Spamming (ie, posting repetitive messages, useless/junk content) chat is very rude. *Disobeying these rules can result in you being kicked or banned from chat. This means you lose your ability to talk in/join chat. Rules for our Discord are similar and are explained in full in the #Rules channel of our Discord. We expect all users joining the Discord to read said rules and to react to them with a paella emoji as proof. Articles *Only edit pages that you are allowed to edit. **That means you shouldn't edit pages that have been made by others that are not intended for public use. This includes adding categories, editing grammar, or fixing spelling. *When you make a new page, please add categories. **Learn how to do so at Start Your Journey/Categories. **This can be done while making the page, or immediately after its creation. **Admins and moderators will fix your categories the first few times there have been mistakes, but continued neglect of categories (or using incorrect categories) may result in a warning. *To stop this page getting too long, our specific rules for characters can be found here. Please read them. Content Specific rules for content in reference to characters can be found here. *You don't have to write characters who are good people. You are more than free to write truly heinous villains with no redeeming qualities. *However, it's important to realise that things have consequences. If you want to write your character doing something bad the character shouldn’t be rewarded for being a bad person by the narrative. *Writing sensitive content, or things that can potentially make others uncomfortable, is permitted. However, you should attach warnings so those who do not want to read such things know what not to read. Examples of such content includes but is not limited to: violence and gore, drug and alcohol abuse, abuse, sexual harassment, discrimination, discussions of disordered eating, incest, paedophilia, etc. If the content would bring a film's rating above PG-13, it probably needs a warning. **Severely sensitive content like suicide and rape should not be explicitly shown. That means you can reference or refer to such things, but the acts themselves are not allowed to be “shown on screen”. **We encourage all users to be mindful of what they are writing and how they are framing it. Glorifying things like rape, suicide, mental illnesses, and unhealthy relationships, to name a few things, while uncommon here, is not acceptable. *Please research before writing about topics (sensitive or otherwise) you don't have experience with. Ultimately this is something that it is hard for us to implement in a steadfast way, nor do we want to, per se. We aren't here to censor your content and we want you to feel free posting things that pertain to your characters, their world, and their narrative; fandom should be fun. However we ask that users remain careful in how they depict things and suggest treading on the safe path in reference to content warnings. Art *Only post pictures that you are allowed to post, that is to say: **All art posted on the Wikia by you should belong to you. Art that you have created, art that has been gifted to you, and art that you have paid for are all a-okay for you to post, though please remember to give credit where credit is due. **Art that is in the public domain is alright to post, as is art you are able to use under fair use. *Pictures from dollmakers and art made from tracing (ie, base art, recolours) are not allowed anywhere on the Wikia. **Said pictures are not allowed to be uploaded to the site and should not appear on pages and message walls or in comments and blogs. **However, you are allowed to link these pictures on pages, as long as they are hosted externally. **Base art here is defined as “art made from a base traced from non-original art”. You can use a base if it was 100% made by yourself without tracing someone else's art. *Do you want to show people a piece of art, but it's made by another person? If the person is onsite you can upload their image and give credit. If the person is offsite you can link it. Roleplay Users may roleplay onsite in the forums or offsite, if they prefer. For onsite roleplays, all the general rules of the Wikia are to be followed. Of note in particular: *No sexual content and no excessive gore or violence. *Warnings should be used when necessary. *Please do not use your character as a voicebox to spout hatred towards minority groups. We understand that not all characters are good people but we expect all our users to be. It isn't appropriate for your character to be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. without being treated as a bad or ignorant person for it. Additionally, we expect users to remain courteous and to remember standard internet etiquette for roleplaying: *No godmodding e.g. no excessively controlling another person's character without their permission. *No overpowered characters e.g. no characters who are untouchable and aren't affected by anything that happens to them. **Both of these make RP a lot less enjoyable and stop the flow of the story. *Don't jump into private RPs you aren't involved with. *Before joining a public RP, make sure you have read and understood what has happened thus far. Once again, these are not rules we can steadfastly implement and nor ones we want to. Roleplaying should be fun, so try not to get too bogged down with concern. The admin team doesn't have the ability to monitor every RP on the site and some users may not mind a bit of godmodding here and there. At the end of the day, be polite, discuss things with your partner, and let an admin know if you're uncomfortable in an roleplaying situation. In reference to offsite roleplays: What you do offsite is not our business. However, if you want to archive the roleplay onsite then the content should abide by our standard rules. Blogs There are no specific rules for blogs as of right now. Naturally, they should follow the site's general rules. Three Strikes Policy Standard Wikia-wide punishment for continued rule breaking is a ban, which restricts your ability to post on our site for a given period of time. *You will be given three warnings before your first ban. *After your first ban you will be given two warnings before a second ban. *After your second ban you will be given one warning before a third ban. *Though it seldom happens, your third ban is usually a permanent, life time ban. Of note: *Admins will let you know when you are being warned about something. Please do not worry that one accidental rule break due to a misunderstanding, for example, is a warning. As has been said, there isn't a user onsite who hasn't accidentally broken a minor rule of some kind before. Miscellaneous *If you think another user has broken the rules then the best thing to do in nearly all circumstances is to privately message an admin about the situation, whatever it may be. We appreciate your concern, always. *It is vital that users do not feel ganged up upon by other users. Please do not start debates about rule breaks in the comments of a page. *Please let an admin know if ever you feel uncomfortable or upset in regards to anything Wikia related. If someone has upset you, including staff members; if someone has been rude to you; if you feel the content someone has posted is inappropriate or offensive in anyway; if you're feeling left out or anxious about being active, etc. we want to know. Our ears are open and nothing is too silly for you to talk to us about. We want your experience to be as pleasant as possible, so if something is bothering you then please help us help you. Other *Rules can, and may be subject to, change. *If any major changes or additions in rules occur a post will be made announcing that. *Thank you for reading the rules and enjoy your time on the Wikia! Category:Tutorials Category:Official Guides